


Requiem

by TauriCXIV



Series: Tumblr Ficlets [2]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Blood, Body Horror, Drabble, Torture, ardynoct if you squint, episode ardyn, hurt noct
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-07
Updated: 2018-12-07
Packaged: 2019-09-13 06:35:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16887462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TauriCXIV/pseuds/TauriCXIV
Summary: Ardyn suffered unspeakable torment. It is only fitting that Noctis does as well.





	Requiem

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ivorydice](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivorydice/gifts).



The potion broke over his skin and dragged him back to consciousness against his will. He shivered against the cold, his shirt had been taken at some point, but he didn’t remember when. He was exhausted, too weak to even lift his head. Sweat dripped down into his eyes, burning and blinding him, but he couldn’t move his arms to wipe it away.

“Are you going to pass out every time? At this rate, we’ll run out of potions before we get to the fun part.”

Noctis wanted to spit back at him with another insult, but his throat had gone raw from screaming.

“Hmm, this one went in quite nicely.” Ardyn mused. He ran a hand up Noctis’ bare chest. “I don’t mean to brag, but I think I’ve gotten better at this. Far less blood that time. What do you say, Your Highness?”

A hand grasped his chin and forced him to face the sight that turned his already emptied stomach. A long metal rod protruded from his abdomen. It had shattered his rib and possibly punctured a lung in the process. The potion had mended the flesh around them, leaving the horrible wrongness of fresh pink skin encasing the iron nail.

Ardyn had hammered two other identical nails through bones of his wrists, which he used to suspend Noctis from heavy chains. Noctis had almost bled out from the first nail when Ardyn had conveniently forgotten to use a potion on him.

“What’s the matter? Nothing to say? I suppose I wasn’t very talkative either when my brother’s men drove spikes through my bones. The same men for whom I gave my mortal soul to heal. It is as the old saying goes, _‘No good deed goes unpunished.’_ ” Adryn gave a hollow laugh.

“They left me there. Hanging, in the darkness, for millennia. At every breath, the chains tore at my flesh. The pain was _indescribable_.”

“And yet,” Noctis gasped, his voice like sandpaper, “you keep talking.”

“Now where was it…” Ardyn’s fingers trailed over Noctis’ skin, searching. They stopped just above his kidney. “Ah, here.”

The cold kiss of metal was the only warning before the hammer drove the rod into his back. The skin split open and hot blood dripped down his back. Noctis screamed. It sounded inhuman to his own ears. He lurched forward, trying to escape. He felt something shatter in his wrists, but the chains held him firmly in place.

His pain echoed out into the uncaring darkness.

Ardyn was standing in front of him again, wiping his hands clean on a blood-stained cloth. The pain was gone. His bones were intact once more. He must have lost consciousness again. His mouth tasted metallic.

“Of course, it was the isolation that was the worst. The knowledge that all those who swore their love for me had turned their backs,” Ardyn said. He stood in front of Noctis and cupped his face in his hands. He was strangely gentle when he smoothed the sweat-stuck hair away from his face and stared into his eyes. Noctis was too weak to resist. He stared back at Ardyn. The torture must have broken him because, for a moment, Noctis could have sworn he saw pity in those eyes.

“Perhaps they will find you, too, a thousand years from now.”

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this for ivorydice after the Episode Ardyn teaser released.
> 
> You can find me on tumblr at [TauriCXIV!](https://tauricxiv.tumblr.com/)


End file.
